Habits To Master For 2017

January 17, 2017

1. Clearly write what you want, daily.

2. Drink more water

3. Clear your mind regularly

4. Move more

5. Read and take action more.

2017 is a new year, new opportunity to develop yourself as a person and an entrepreneur. After talking with hundreds of entrepreneurs, I’ve come up with a list of five high-leverage activities that can make this your best year yet.

Before going on, I want you to remember that as humans, we are prone to taking the path of least resistance. It’s how we are, we’re hard-wired to conserve energy, it was advantageous to us evolutionarily.

So if you want to change your habits, its going to require something bigger than a motivational video, or even a 3-day conference. Its going to require you understanding your motivation, why you want to make the change.

This leads into the first habit.
1. Clearly, write what you want. Every day.

Whether you write out your goal(s), or journal about your ideal life, do this daily. Consistently.

From Napoleon Hill to Charlie Munger, these great thinkers all understand that through true, deep-seeded change comes from repetition.

Even if you do this habit as minimal as possible, do it every single day. Because once you say you’re going to do this, and you actually do it, you reaffirm to yourself that you’re capable of following through.

Some entrepreneurs I look up to, like Com Mirza, write out their goals 300x per day.

Start small; once a day is enough. Just do it every day.

2. Drink ~1 gallon of water per day. (Adjust accordingly by weight. Take 2/3 your weight in pounds and convert it to ounces.).

Last month I went to a mastermind event. A fitness coach was there, and I asked him the number one health tip he could recommend based on his 20+ years of experience. 16 ounces of water first thing in the morning, followed by getting a big water bottle you like, and bringing that with you everywhere.

Stay hydrated. Sure you’ll have to go to the bathroom more. But once I started doing this, I had more energy throughout the day than when I’d drink 3 cups of coffee per day.

Do yourself a favor. Find a nice journal, or get a free account with Trello. Purge everything from your mind into this. It will take a few days. But this habit of clearing your mind, and writing it down in “actionable” terms, will be liberating.

4. Move more.

Movement will do wonders for you. Whether its taking a walk around the block or dancing to music, it doesn’t matter. Just stop being sedentary.

We have these bodies. Let’s be grateful for them, whatever condition they may be in.

You don’t need to do any drastic measures like committing to a huge workout regimen. Keep it simple. Start small and scale up.

Move more in 2017.
5. Read more, and take action on it.

I call it the 1:1 knowledge to action ratio.

There is a reason Warren Buffett, Mark Cuban, and other billionaires spend hours upon hours reading every day.

Charlie Munger, the billionaire investor and business partner of Warren Buffet is quoted “In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time — none, zero. You’d be amazed at how much Warren reads–and at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I’m a book with a couple of legs sticking out.”

Take this with a grain of salt, cause he’s a billionaire.

And when you’re reading, don’t hesitate to skip around. Please don’t read every single word. About 20% of books will contain 80% of the important information.

And please couple this reading with massive action. When you learn a new trick about persuasion, test it out the same day. Its easy to trick yourself and just keep absorbing. The true habit you want to cultivate it reading AND taking action.

So there you have it. These habits are going to take you 60-90 days to implement. I highly suggest writing them down on a notecard and placing it where you KNOW you’ll see it. Maybe on your desk, maybe by your bed stand.

Reward yourself for small progress. It will create a positive feedback loop.

Just imagine, as you implement these habits, the kind of person you’re going to be headed into 2018.

Fownders is a learning ecosystem for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, built for leaders who want to develop the hard skills and soft skills needed to align their purpose towards a prosperous career and lifestyle.

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